Until recently, it didn't add up that some Plymouth-Canton Educational Park student-athletes were able to continue competing on the field or court despite not getting things done in the classroom.

"It used to be, in this district, if you had four D-minuses and an E you were eligible," noted Plymouth varsity football coach Mike Sawchuk. "Which is ridiculous."

So the district has now implemented a uniform, new-and-improved policy for student-athletes — establishing the academic standards they must meet in order to keep catching touchdowns, ripping base hits or outdistancing opponents in the pool.

All Canton, Plymouth and Salem student-athletes must essentially carry a 2.0 grade-point-average, with grades to be checked every five weeks to make sure they remain eligible.

As far as Sawchuk is concerned, the policy doesn't change the mentality with his football program.

"That's your number one thing, academics, because there's only a very small percentage of your kids that are going to go off and play college football," Sawchuk stressed. "So you better get it done in the classroom, regardless. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a kid that was getting ready to play college football that I had to send somewhere, like a junior college, because of his grades.

"We've always hammered them on their grades and they've always qualified and been ready to go. So I'm pretty proud about that."

Still fair

According to Plymouth assistant principal of athletics and activities, Kyle Meteyer, a former track and field coach at Salem, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools is raising the standards to be more in line with neighboring school districts.

The Plymouth-Canton district is, as a result, jettisoning the long-adopted standard established by the Michigan High School Athletic Association that was a "one size fits all" policy for students all across the state.

"There are a lot of districts, (the) minimum standard is to pass 66 percent of your classes, which in our district with six classes means you got to pass four," Meteyer explained. "So under the old policy it was conceivable for a student to have four D-minuses and two E's and still be eligible to play sports."

Meteyer said he thinks it's a good move for the district, noting the policy still provides leeway for kids who might be struggline with a class or two as long as they deliver the goods overall.

"I am a big fan of it, I think it was overdue," Meteyer emphasized. "I was a coach myself in the district. I always thought the old policy, ... the MHSAA standard is designed for an entire state, so everybody from Detroit to Plymouth-Canton to the Upper Peninsula rural schools fall under the same thing.

"It's a one size fits all, so we're trying to be better. We're trying to be more aggressive on this and try to raise the bar. ... I'm a track coach, we didn't raise it a foot, we raised it about three inches. So we put it within every student's grasp."

Keeping tabs

Meteyer said the policy does not have a particular benchmark that kids need to maintain, whether GPA or a number of classes they need to pass.

"We're checking grades every five weeks instead of 10, and the standard is, they have make one of two qualifications," he said. "They either have to be passing all of their classes, that means with a D or better.

"And if they're not doing that, they can fail one class, we're giving them a little bit of leeway, ... but the remaining classes that you are passing have to equal out to a 2.0 GPA.

"Sometimes a kid might get over his head in a harder class or something he's not too good in. We're willing to give him the benefit of a doubt, if he's demonstrating that he's doing a good job in those other five classes."

By keeping tabs every five weeks instead of 10, that gives student-athletes — and coaches, for that matter — the incentive to make sure schoolwork isn't slacking.

"In the past, grades were checked every 10 weeks, on the quarters," Meteyer continued. "Now they're being checked twice as frequently, every five weeks.

"The reason for that, especially in fall sports, kids would get their first grade check in November. Most fall sports are done by November, most of them wrap up in October. By the time we check everybody's grades they're gone, so coaches really had no influence over them."

Other districts to adopt similar policies include Livonia, Wayne-Westland, Northville, Rochester and West Bloomfield.

"It's understanding the bare minimum is no longer good enough," Meteyer added.